Alone
by Onileo
Summary: It's a fact: Life sucks and then you die. But Starscream was never good at staying dead. When a chance resurrection brings him back online, he finds an unlikely friend in a human with a past almost as troubled as his own. One that makes him wonder if life was worth it after all. Starscream/OC friendship fic. Rated for character death and blowing up the Earth. Post-DOTM.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This story is the result of a plot bunny gone wild while my children were watching a marathon of the Michael Bay movies. I'll admit in advance that I'm only a novice when it comes to Transformers, but there shouldn't be any noticeable OOCness. Also, I'm not using any particular canon series as a base for this story, since there are quite a few to choose from, but one that is a blend of G1, Armada, and the movies/games. The timeline of events, however, is post-DOTM. That being said, please enjoy the story and drop me a line to let me know how I did. :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers in any of their incarnations, and this story is for entertainment only, not profit. The original characters are mine, along with the storyline.

Alone

Chapter 1

_Kensington, Illinois _

_ June 21, 2015_

_ 10:00 PM_

Deep, repeated lowing sounded in the starless night, bellows of discontent from one of the human's meat animals. Judging from the slight echo rebounding off the grassy hillside behind him, the creature was located somewhere on this farm, probably in the pasture behind the collection of worn barns that stood close to the rear of the two-story house. It was most likely reacting to the charged atmosphere that grew heavier as invisible clouds collected in the blackness overhead. Or it was about to give birth. Either way, animals weren't the focus of the small mechanical creature that crouched patiently in the darker shadows of the night. He had other things to attend to.

His red eyes gleamed as he began to roam the edge of the neglected lawn, scanning the area ahead, looking for any sign of a threat from the people inhabiting the house. There were two in residence, a male lying inside the large living room asleep, and a female posted on a porch swing, fingers twitching every now and again as she became more engrossed in the book lying on her lap.

Tiny whirring clicks broke the stillness as Doc took his chance and scurried across the unlit open space and headed toward the barn closest to him, sensors alert for any change in the environment. The barn was a wide building, with no windows and a set of double doors large enough for two elephants to exit shoulder to shoulder. Apparently this structure was designed to house plowing and harvesting equipment, and not mere animals. Slipping between a large crack in the door, he found himself surrounded by stacks and stacks of various glass and metal parts designed for a quantity of different machines, and not a single one whole. It was a silent graveyard of the mechanical, a fitting place for him on this night.

Shrugging off the useless sentiment a moment later, he performed a quick scan that told him no security equipment was in place, and no animals were in the near vicinity either. He had learned rather quickly about the tenacity of the human's protective canine companions, and had no wish to repeat the experience of being chased by one of the four-legged beasts.

Now satisfied that he would remain undisturbed, Doc turned his attention to the piles of metal around him. There didn't really seem to be an order to things, other than to keep it out of the middle of the floor and away from a workbench that sat in one corner. Windshields were stacked on car seats, quarter-panels for various vehicles were heaped inside an intact truck bed, other pieces of unidentified origin lay bent and twisted in small hills along the wall. Rows of dust-covered shelves stood sentinel above him, holding everything from larger tools and work lights to discarded and broken headlamp bulbs.

Moving over to what looked like the most recently acquired set of items, Doc began examining them, looking for anything familiar. He picked up a silver triangle of metal and stopped. It was a piston joint, designed to slide and rotate large amounts of material at the same time... and it was not of human make. Tossing it to a barren section of the floor, his discretion died as he searched for more pieces in a near frenzy. Rummaging through one stack after another, he separated cybertronian parts from human, carelessly dropping the discarded pieces in a heap on the dirt floor until he spotted what he was really looking for beneath a stack of hubcaps. With a heave he pushed them all aside, unmindful of the clatter of metal banging on the ground, until only a small, dusty box lay before him. Picking it up with care, he cleared the dirt away with a whirr of his surgical fan, revealing the Decepticon symbol etched in purple on the clear glass casing.

A smile pulled his mouth upward. At last, a small taste of victory. The battle in the human city of Chicago had shattered their forces, leaving only the smaller of the bots loyal to Megatron alive. For once their size was an advantage, and they managed to slip away from the city. They had gone into hiding together, but it wasn't long before they were sought out by the humans and Autobots and exterminated with a vengeance. As far as Doc knew, he was the only one left. He could only attribute this to his ability to outsmart the primitive hulking hunks of flesh and metal that didn't seem to operate past their fists. The device he had invented to mask his energon signature had helped as well.

Once they had been lulled back into a sense of ease, he began his search for his leaders. He found the disassembled forms of Sentinel Prime and Megatron locked away in a secret military base, but they had been so badly damaged there was no way he could revive them. Soundwave, Demolisher, Sideways… they had all been melted down by the human soldiers that called themselves NEST, no doubt as appeasement for their own losses. But there was one that not even the humans held a record of after the battle. Damaged beyond recognition and tangled in the rubble of a fallen building, the body had been picked up by a large scale clean-up company and taken with everything else to a commercial scrapyard to be sold for parts. He wound up following a lot of dead leads and taking some very high risks to find the last known location of the box in his hands, and after tracking the human who had unwittingly purchased the carcass, he finally had what he was looking for.

Climbing up on the workbench that he could now see held a bevy of metalworking tools, he gingerly set his prize down. Pulling a small package from a storage compartment in his torso, he reached over and sprung open the box, revealing the large crystal inside. He was pleased to see that it was intact, otherwise his mission would have been for nothing. Tearing the package apart, he allowed the black sand he had spent almost a month collecting from the revealed Tomb of the Primes to fall around the crystal. By itself the sand was worthless; it wasn't a part of the Matrix of Leadership, just the material on which the highest form of power sat for thousands of years, absorbing a small portion of life-giving energy. But when combined with enough energon, the residual force would produce a chain reaction large enough to revive a dozen cybertronians. Unfortunately, the only available source of energon he had lay in his very chest, and it still may not be a strong enough catalyst.

If it worked, he would be a hero of the Decepticons. If not… well, it didn't really matter. He was alone, the only purpose left in his life to ensure the continuation of the mission Megatron started.

With a dark, metallic chuckle he popped open the casing around his spark, reached in and wrapped his hand around his own crystal. It was hot, and the metal of his fingers began to turn red as they heated rapidly. He tugged as hard as he could, yanking the glowing stone from his chest and dropping it inside the box with the sand.

As his eyesight began to dim, he breathed a final command.

"Rise… Starscream…"

He didn't have time to see the crystal shatter and release his life force because his strength left him and he fell from the workbench and into the dirt with a cold clunk.

XXXXXX

The chains on the porch swing creaked in a sad rhythm as Jenny Aldron slowly rocked back and forth, turning the pages of the science book she was reading. The house behind her reverberated with noise from the blaring television, her father having passed out early in front of it, leaving her to her own devices. She was so glad of it, because that meant she had a small reprieve from him until he woke up late the next day. Ignoring the laughter of the studio audience pounding away at her back, she returned her attention to the chapter on astronomy she was working her way through. Sure it was summer now, and she didn't have to learn anything until she started college in another three months, but she found some comfort in keeping her mind busy. Knowledge was power, and power was hope, hope for an escape from the hell that plagued her life.

There must have been a time when things weren't the way they are now, but she couldn't remember it. All that remained of a previously happy life was a tiny book of old pictures, filled with forgotten smiles and special moments that would never come again. Her mother died of illness when she was three, leaving her grieving father to raise her on his own. She imagined that he must have loved her with the entirety of his soul, because when she died, he lost all traces of it. There hadn't been a day since that he had been sober or pleasant. Time only seemed to poison him, and his anger over her loss grew into something monstrous.

If it hadn't been for her aunt, Jenny probably would have died of neglect before she was five. But she had moved in until she was seven, and old enough to at least feed and bathe herself without help. Then she had left, unable to stand her brother's temper any longer. Jenny couldn't help resenting her a little for leaving her behind. But things were what they were. She got herself ready for school every morning and taught herself to cook by watching television in the evenings when her father was out. She cleaned the house as best as she could, and tried to care for the farm when she had time, but there never seemed to be enough. When she turned twelve she had been fairly confident that she could make it on her own, despite the lack of parenting. But then her thirteenth birthday arrived, and that brought on a whole new set of horrors when her father's so-called friends noticed her rapidly developing body...

Pushing the bile that threatened to rise back down, Jenny gazed out across the yard. The night was hot, with a dark sky full of heavy clouds. No evening birds sang, the crickets and frogs were quiet, and the slight breeze just kept making the strands of her short hair stick to her sweaty face.

She had just turned another page in her book when a crash from the front barn caught her attention. It sounded like a stack of parts suddenly falling. A wave of alarm passed over her, but she quickly pushed it away. Setting her book down, she rose to investigate, moving slowly to keep the chains from protesting loudly. It was probably just a hungry coyote or stray dog looking for something to eat. No one with any sense would come sneaking around here. Her father would in all likelihood shoot them and there was nothing of value to be had anyway.

The noise from her tennis shoes on the gravel was muted by the clatter coming from inside, ensuring nothing would be warned of her approach. She thought she heard a muffled voice from inside, but when she stopped in front of the barn, only silence emanated from within. She quietly lifted the latch to the doors, and with a mighty heave swung them open. Stepping inside, she let her eyes adjust to the darkness. She saw nothing at first, but then a blue glow in the middle of the barn caught her attention. Reaching over, she flipped on a light switch, illuminating the interior with a dull yellow glow. The blue shine she saw was coming from a small box lying open on a workbench. Beside it on the ground lay what looked like a small robot, its hand lying limply next to the table's wooden leg.

Jenny froze in place. Years ago she had watched along with everyone else as Chicago was seized and nearly destroyed by a faction of alien robots, confirming both their existence and danger in one fell swoop. But they had been destroyed by the military and the Autobots, who had disappeared from the public eye soon afterward. Uneasy at this turn of events, she took a couple of small steps forward, her eyes trained on the small metal humanoid. It didn't seem conscious now, but it had gotten in here somehow, and she wasn't taking any chances. Picking up a long piece of metal that worked as an impromptu spear, she reached out and poked at it. It didn't move, so she poked it again.

When she still didn't get a reaction she turned her attention to the box on the table. The blue glow had intensified, and a nearly inaudible whine seemed to be coming from it now. Reaching out with her free hand, she started to touch it. She quickly withdrew it when the thing started to visibly vibrate as the whine grew louder until it was a full-blown mechanical hum. She took a step back and gripped her spear with both hands as the thing began clattering wildly around on the table. The doors on it closed and it fell face-up on the floor, right on top of the apparently dead robot.

The only warning of danger she had was the rattle of metal behind her before a large sheet of steel came spinning over her head to land on top of the box with a crash. She yelped in surprise just as the metal spear was ripped from her hands by an invisible force and dropped horizontally on the sheet metal. More of it followed, and she dropped to her stomach and covered her head as the barn erupted in a maelstrom of moving parts. But as vulnerable as she was, she couldn't look away. She watched as the parts were all drawn to the box, surrounding it and connecting to each other of their own accord in a blaze of blue sparks.

Molded and reshaped, they began forming what looked like a giant metal skeleton. Hoses, pistons, bolts and screws flew around her like a mechanical meteor shower. Wires, moving like possessed snakes, surrounded a brain-like matrix, drawing it upward, expanding it as more blue sparks brought the copper pathways to life before extending and twisting throughout the frame. Two large, chevron-shaped pieces snapped into place behind the shoulders to form a pair of wings. Last came the protective outer shell, layers of metal growing hot and glowing white as they were fused together. Paint from forgotten cans ran under the direction of an invisible artist, splashing different sections in red and blue. Two old windshields were drawn together, the glass turning red as thin bands of metal braced against them, shaping the glass into a trough before connecting to the top of the chassis. Then bright sparks started showering around her and she dropped her head to shield her eyes as the sound of the automated construction continued.

After several minutes of nerve-wracking noise, Jenny was roused by the sudden silence in the barn. When she lifted her head, she found herself crouched between the knees of what appeared to be a giant robot lying in the middle of the dirt floor. As silently as possible she climbed to her feet and looked around. The shelves were cleared of their parts, leaving nothing but the smell of hot metal and disturbed dust floating in the air. The thing wasn't moving, and the high-pitched whine she heard before was gone. She waited, rooted to the spot, ignoring the instinct that told her to run away.

She didn't know how much time passed while she stood there, chest heaving, staring in shock at the goliath before her, but it seemed like ages before she came to herself. Silently she stepped backward and laid her hand on what looked like one of the feet. The metal was warm, but not scorching as she expected, and the less distinct smell of hot wires and oil drifted up to her nose. Her touch didn't evoke any sort of response, so she circled warily around it. It was definitely a humanoid robot, one that could fly judging by the wing-like sections attached to the back and the cylinders at the feet that looked quite a lot like aircraft engines.

She paused again when she was even with the other foot. She should go get her father, call the police, do something. But she scarcely believed her own eyes, and how foolish would she look if she woke her father only to show him an empty barn? No, she would stay until either something happened or she was sure nothing else would happen. Then she would get her father. But first she wanted to see if this thing really had a face.

Summoning her courage, she stepped even with one of the knees, put a foot on one the cylinders that made up the joint and climbed the metallic mountain. She mounted the leg before clambering up to stand on the chest, one hand on the glass dome in front of her. She couldn't see the box now, but she could hear it humming somewhere beneath her. An arc of electrical energy crackled around her, making her jump and gasp. She was beginning to rethink her course of action when a grinding noise sounded ahead and below her, and she looked up to see that the head of the thing had lifted and amber eyes were staring at her, dim at first, but growing in intensity. Its mouth moved, as if it was trying to speak, and at last an oily squeak filled the air, followed by a scratchy, high-pitched voice.

"Get off of me… insect."

Before she had time to scramble back the hands moved to brace against the dirt floor, and Jenny was sent tumbling down as it rose to a sit. Her arm hit his thigh hard before she landed on her bottom with a oomph. Applying pressure to what would soon be a nasty bruise, she looked up at the towering frame. It was staring down at her, and if it had a facial expression, she would say that it looked surprised that she was still sitting there. She was wondering herself why she wasn't screaming her head off and trying to escape, but a strange calm had filled her, and instead she rose to her feet, meeting the amber eyes over the mountain of metal that made up the body between them.

The silence grew thick and Jenny cleared her throat, searching for anything to say.

"Are you an Autobot?" she asked after she finally found her voice.

It continued to stare down at her, and she began to wonder if it could understand her when it suddenly snarled,

"How dare you, worm! I am a Decepticon!"

Pulling his legs under him, Starscream stood to his full height, plowing through the roof of the old barn as if it were made of matchsticks. Timbers fell around Jenny, making her duck and cover her head, and if she hadn't been between the robot's feet, she would have been crushed. Once the roof had settled in a great cloud of dust, the Decepticon turned and sneered at her, then in a single leap, jumped over the still-standing back wall of the barn.

Jenny sat there stunned, looking around her in disbelief. The barn was in ruins, the metal parts her father tinkered with gone, and her only explanation was rapidly disappearing. He was now out of sight, walking through the grove of old apple trees behind the barn when she heard her father come out on the porch, slamming the front door in his wake. Swallowing the sudden lump of fear that stuck in her throat, she jumped to her feet, ducked between the downed rafters and pushed on the jammed barn door until she was free and back in the open air. Her father was heading down the steps, his face twisted in a mask of still-drunken anger.

"Jenny! Why aren't the dishes done yet? Get your worthless ass in here, now!" he yelled as soon as he caught sight of her.

Starscream was just about to transform and leave this hellhole behind when he froze in his tracks, the words of the human running through him like hot oil. The sound of heavily staggering feet on gravel reached him before the girl let out a small squeak of protest.

"What the hell did you do to the barn?! Are you trying to ruin us, you stupid bitch?"

He didn't hear what she said in reply, but the voice that was growing more annoying by the second bellowed out, "Don't you lie to me!"

A loud thump echoed in the night, and Starscream turned around, creeping silently forward to peer over the edge of the demolished building. An older human male had the girl by the arm, his free hand raised, fist clenched, ready to strike again. She was glaring at him defiantly, her head held back, but up. Starscream's amber eyes narrowed in hatred as the female's head snapped back under the force of the following blow.

Stupid insects.

"Don't do that again."

He hadn't realized he had spoken until both of the humans looked straight up at him. Rising to his full height, Starscream adjusted his wings as he glared down at them, the clicking of his pistons loud in the new silence. The man released the girl, who fell to the ground, one hand cradling her face. He turned to run as Starscream cleared the building in an easy jump, sending gravel flying in all directions as he landed with a thud. Reaching forward, he plucked the scrambling man up in his hand. A scream erupted from the worm's throat, and in his terror, he began to struggle.

Starscream laughed humorlessly as he let the man dangle in the air before tossing him up and catching him with his other hand. More screaming ensued as the human was tossed about like a ragdoll. After nearly dropping him twice, Starscream closed his hand around him and brought him close to his face.

"Is this what it feels like, to control someone so much weaker than you?"

A whimper was all he got in reply, so he continued on, "It's nice and all, but there's just one problem with this kind of power." He closed his fingers tightly around the man's torso. "There's always someone bigger that comes along to take it away."

A rush of anticipation ripped through Starscream, and he clenched his fist around the tender flesh until he felt the fragile bones give way. The ribs collapsed just before the spine snapped and the man's efforts ceased. Dropping the heap of broken flesh to the ground, he frowned at the body before locating the girl. She sat where she was, hand still up to her face, her whole body trembling. She didn't look at him, keeping her face turned away even when he leaned over her. With a shrug he straightened and turned away.

Without looking back, he jumped into the air as the girl slumped completely to the ground, transforming before his engines fired and he headed out of the planet's atmosphere as fast as he could go.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

With the glowing blue sphere of Earth behind him, Starscream headed toward the moon, a wave of indignation sweeping over him as he neared the pale satellite. A fine thing it was, for Megatron to leave him under the care of one of the human slaves until he recovered from his wounds. And for the little twit to ask him if he was an Autobot! That had to be Soundwave's doing. The intelligence officer always did have an underlying layer of apathetic cruelty that Starscream was sure he secretly enjoyed. Well, two could play at that game. The next time they needed his help he would find a way to leave them both stranded for awhile... maybe even permanently.

Entering into orbit around the moon, Starscream rolled until his cockpit was facing the surface and he could see the scarred and uneven landscape. He always did have an appreciation for the destructive forces of nature, and the collision-riddled Earth moon was one of his favorite places to examine. As he passed crater after crater, he measured the impact sites, judging the initial size of the asteroids that hit, and at what speed they were traveling when they did so. He played this little game until he reached the event horizon, the divider between night and day on the moon.

Returning to business, he spun back around, activating his scanners as he approached the crash site for the _Ark_. Everything looked fine until he topped the rise and nearly fell out of the air. Stretched out before him was a barren strip of plain, riddled with drag marks and small craters, and nothing more. The ship was gone.

He knew Megatron had plans to finish plundering the Autobot craft, but he was confused as to why he would have it removed entirely. He must have found something big that required a complete excavation. Feeling more than a little unsettled at this turn of events, he pushed onward, further into the blackness. A hundred miles later he breathed a sigh of relief as the battered hull of the _Nemesis_ came into sight. This place had served as his base of operations more than once, and it was almost more of a home to him than Cybertron was.

Slowing to a halt, Starscream transformed as he landed, kicking up moon dust as he strode forward to the hatch that would grant him entry. He stopped in dismay when the door failed to grant him entry upon his arrival. Glancing at the unlit access panel he groaned. The power was down. He would have to break his way in. Gripping the edge of the hatch he forced the door open with some difficulty. The corridor beyond was dark as well. He would have to return with a fresh supply of energon when he had the chance and replenish the power cells.

His footsteps echoed with sharp metallic thunks as he followed the familiar route to the control room, glancing around him as he went. It seemed that no one had been here in a long time, probably since the last time he himself had been here. The entire place was empty, even the security drones sat silently in the hallways as if they were dead.

Forcing the door to the control room open, he was pleased to see a small red light blinking on the main computer console as he slipped inside. Glad that his trip had not been entirely in vain, he pressed the power button. Three large screens lit up as the console came to life, one displaying a warning that there was only ten minutes of battery life left on the computer, one displaying the modified red energon molecule he was working on the last time he was here, and one that gave him access to the Decepticon's communication frequency.

Turning to the last one, he opened the channel and spoke in a sarcastic tone.

"I'm back, glorious leader. Did you miss me?"

He waited for a reply, and when no answer came after several minutes he tried again.

"Megatron, come in. This is Starscream."

A few more minutes passed and the computer remained quiet. Beginning to think he was being ignored for his failure to kill Witwicky in Chicago, he pounded his fist on the console.

"Any Decepticon in the vicinity that can hear me had damn well better respond right now. This is Starscream, your Second-In-Command. Come in!"

"Two minutes of battery life remaining." the computer reminded him in a feminine voice that only raised his ire even more.

Turning to the middle screen, he shut down the energon project and brought up the program that gave them access to the human's internet. Clicking on the search box, he entered Chicago and the solar date that Sentinel Prime activated the space bridge and hit enter. The search results came in a minute later. Clicking on a site that was one of the human's reliable news companies, he waited for the page to load. When the headline popped up, he took a step back from the computer in surprise.

_Victory in Chicago!_

Then the screen went black as the battery died.

XXXXXX

Jenny watched in silence as the mangled body of her father was transferred to a stretcher and placed in the back of an ambulance, the strobing red lights casting intermittent shades of orange on the gravel between them. She couldn't help the feeling of guilt that washed over her as the doors closed with a click of finality. If she hadn't gone to investigate the noises in the barn, he would probably still be alive. But then again, if he hadn't hit her, the Decepticon would not have stopped to intervene. Her hand rose to her face to touch the swelling on her cheek. It was already bruising, an ugly purple-yellow blotch just below her eye. The medics had asked about it, but she had lied and told her that a timber fell on her when the barn collapsed from disrepair. She also told them that her father had been killed pulling her out of the wreckage. One look at the twisted pile of wood and metal and they had bought every word of it.

She still stood in a surreal haze as the deputy sheriff approached, asked her a few more perfunctory questions, handed him her card and left behind the ambulance. She felt like she should go to the hospital with the body, but there was really no need for her to be there until the morgue staff arrived in the morning. Besides, her aunt would be driving in as soon as she called her, and she would need to be here when she arrived.

Jerking herself out of her reverie, she walked back into the house. She started to call her aunt immediately, but stopped just short of reaching for the phone. Instead she stood there, staring blankly at the receiver as the quiet of the house descended on her. It permeated her insides, a cold feeling creeping into her soul. Because it seemed that she shouldn't just be standing there, she walked over to the couch and sat down. The blank screen of the television stared back at her for a long time. When she realized that she was still doing nothing, she went to the kitchen and started washing the dishes. It didn't matter that it was four in the morning, they needed to be done. Besides, if she had done them right after supper, her father would still be alive.

The irregular slosh and clink did little to help her, and as soon as she was finished, she returned to the couch and sat down. Her face was starting to hurt, so she placed her still damp hand against it, hoping the coolness would reduce some of the swelling. She should get up and get an ice pack, but she didn't feel like moving at the moment.

Suddenly she kicked the coffee table in a fit of rage, sending empty beer cans and a dirty plate she had missed clattering to the floor. Why hadn't she done something, anything? Why was she so weak? Surely there was something she could have done to save her father. Yeah, he was an asshole, but he was human and deserved to live. The way he had died was just cruel, even if a small part of her had rejoiced when she was saved from the beating he was doling out to her. Hating herself for the conflicting thought, she jumped to her feet and screamed her frustration to the empty room.

Outside, a crack of thunder answered as the clouds finally sent relief careening to the earth in the form of a heavy downpour.

XXXXXX

The cold silence of space wrapped around Starscream as he sped through the solar system, leaving the moon far behind. It didn't take him long to pass Mars and the Asteroid Belt, as fast as he was going. It was only when he was staring at the giant storm that constituted Jupiter's Eye that he slowed down some, his course beginning to waver. This was the correct path to return to Cybertron, but he no longer had a home planet to return to. Both the _Ark_ and the _Nemesis_ were useless, and any other Decepticon bases would be either abandoned or destroyed by now. And as far as he knew, he had no superior to report to, no mission to carry out.

With the recognition of his loss came a rebellious sense of freedom. There was no Megatron to push him around, telling him what a disappointment he was before striking him like he was no more important than a malfunctioning toy. There were no underlings trying to fight him constantly for his hard-won position of Second-In-Command. He could make his own decisions now, his own rules. There was no one who would contest them.

There was no one at all.

When he passed beyond the frozen rings of Saturn, he stopped altogether. Hovering in the blackness, uncertainty overcame him. Where should he go? What should he do? The remains of his race were all back on that wretched planet of humans, and the Cybertronians had few allies among the other races in the universe. There were no more shards of the All-Spark, and Optimus Prime held the Matrix of Leadership, so it was unlikely that he would even be able to build a companion, let alone a force strong enough to fight the Autobots.

One of Saturn's many moons approached him on its orbit, so he landed on the barren rock, transforming before he sat on the ground. He stayed there for a long time, as adrift as the distant asteroids, contemplating nothing more than the icy yellow giant as it passed in front of him, framed in stars. The sun burned on behind him, lighting the contours of the rings and the gaseous surface beneath.

His thoughts eventually turned to the circumstances of his awakening. He remembered nothing from the time that pest Witwicky planted a bomb in his eye until he found himself lying in a barn in the middle of nowhere, the tiny human female standing on his chest. She had not seemed to be afraid of him, even when he told her that he was a Decepticon. Perhaps she knew something about what happened and why he ended up there. She hadn't really looked like one of Megatron's human servants, but things had happened fast, and he may have been too hasty in his decision to leave.

Yes, perhaps he _would_ return to Earth. He needed to find out why the Decepticons had lost the fight in Chicago, and how many survivors there were. If he could rally them, then he may be able to avenge the Decepticon losses. But he couldn't just go roaming the planet looking for them. The humans' energon detectors made doing much other than hiding difficult. He would have to work slowly to avoid a confrontation before he was ready. But when he was ready, he would show the Autobots that he was as formidable as the leader he answered to, and the only reason he had not been in charge was because of circumstance. Yes, he would do that, but first, he would find the human girl again and get a few much needed answers.

Rising to his feet, Starscream launched himself into the air, slamming through a wayward asteroid as he headed back the way he came.

XXXXXX

Jenny set the phone in its cradle and let out a frustrated sigh. She had spent most of the day in town, first at the hospital and then at the funeral home. When she did arrive back home she had to deal with her father's friends by herself, and she just found out her aunt wouldn't be coming until the day of her father's services. She would have to make all of the arrangements alone; she didn't really know what she was doing, and she didn't know who else to contact to help her.

Ignoring the new stack of funeral papers and brochures lying on the table, she moved to the living room and sat down. The new silence in the house still unnerved her, so she flipped on the television and turned up the volume. The movie that was showing didn't interest her much, so after a few minutes she got up and went to the kitchen. Tossing a microwave dinner in to heat, she went to the window to wait for it to finish. Night had started to fall, a gray fog rolling in to cover the tall, wet grass on the lawn.

After she ate she curled up on the couch. She hadn't slept at all the night before, and though she was tired she didn't feel like going up to bed. So she absently stared at the screen in front of her until her eyelids began to droop, and before she knew it she fell into a dreamless sleep.

It was well into the night when a rising rumble of thunder woke her. At least she thought it was thunder, but instead of dying away after a moment, the sound grew louder. A jet, she thought to herself. When she was little she used to run outside every time she heard one to watch as the planes flew over her house, but now she didn't give it more than a moment's notice. That is until the sound leveled out and turbulence started shaking the house. Were they landing the thing in her front yard?

Exhausted and sore, she pulled herself to her feet and marched out the door, determined to give whoever was out there a piece of her mind for disturbing a house in mourning. She slammed the porch door for emphasis, but the words died in her throat when she left the front steps and came to a halt at the edge of the yard. The Decepticon from the barn was standing a few feet from her, towering over the house like a metal goliath.

Noticing the movement below him, Starscream leaned down and peered at the human before him. He noticed that her face was still injured from the male's beating, but his body was nowhere to be found. Satisfied that he had the right place, his arm came swinging down to pluck her up from the grass. She didn't scream or wet herself, like so many humans he had encountered had. She just gazed at him with a level stare, almost as if they were equals. He brought her closer to his face.

"Answer my questions, or I'll rip you to shreds right here." he spat out in a metallic hiss.

"Okay." she said in a steady voice, though her tight grip on his index finger belied her nervousness about being held so high in the air.

"First, what happened to the Decepticons in Chicago and how did I end up in your shed?" Then as an afterthought he added, "And why aren't you afraid of me?!"

"I lived with the biggest asshole on the planet." she returned, "I'm not afraid of anyone."

Starscream gave a bitter laugh. "You mean you lived with the biggest _human_ asshole on the planet. You never knew Megatron. Now answer the question."

There was something in the way he said Megatron's name that told her there was far more to that story than he was telling, but she pushed it away to address the problem at hand. "I don't know what happened in Chicago. The only thing I saw was what they told on the news, which wasn't much other than the invaders had been defeated. And as for how you got here... well, you were built here. ...Are you going to kill me?"

"Yes, once I'm through with you...What do you mean by 'built here'? I was created on Cybertron."

She opened her mouth to answer, but was interrupted by the sudden roar of another engine and the voice of an enemy he knew only too well. "Starscream! Put the human down!"

Turning, Starscream faced the Autobot who had arrived.

"Well, if it isn't Breakaway." he hissed, eying the missile launcher aimed at his chest from fifty yards away, "Coming to the rescue of one of your little pets? Well, you're far too late for that."

Breakaway lifted the barrel of the launcher slightly and spoke as Starscream moved Jenny into position in front of his chest, as if displaying her in the palm of his hand.

"I admit I'm surprised to see you here." he said, "Then again you never did know when to stay dead. And here I find you picking on a frightened little girl? That's low, Starscream, even for you."

"How dare you compare me to a common thug! I was the Sky Commander and leader of the Seekers for centuries. Show some respect for your better before I blast you to bits."

"Well Commander," Breakaway mocked, saluting with his free hand, his weapon never wavering out of alignment with Starscream's head. "What do you want with her, then? Have you finally come to your senses and realized that humans are good for more than just slaves?"

"That's none of your concern, Autobot." Starscream sneered.

Breakaway leveled a second gun on him. "I'm not going to tell you again. Put her down."

Starscream's eyes narrowed. "I don't take orders from _you_."

Before Breakaway had time to answer or react, Starscream tossed the human high into the air, jumped after her, and transformed.

For one heart-stopping moment, Jenny was weightless, suspended horizontally in mid-air, seven stories up, staring down at the shifting mass of metal beneath her. Time seemed to slow as she watched the Decepticon's body reshape itself from a robot into a jet unlike any she had ever seen before. It happened so fast she could scarcely believe what she was seeing. His arms and legs rotated and tucked into his body as his chest piece raised up over his head to form the cockpit and nosecone of the craft. The wing pieces lifted and fell as they adjusted for flight and two large multi-barrel guns rose to where his shoulders once were. When it was over she was staring at a wicked red and blue spacecraft that looked like something from a science fiction movie.

His engines fired and he was closing in on her just as the world sped back up and she began to fall. She closed her eyes as her stomach lodged in her throat just before she landed hard in the open cockpit, her ribs hitting the edge of the seat and knocking the wind from her. With a hiss the glass shield closed around her and she heard the thrusters kick in. Then they were moving at breakneck speed, spiraling as they climbed high into the night air. Grabbing the control stick, she fought to keep herself upright and her dinner down, gasping to regain her breath at the same time. When they leveled out she was thrown forward, bruising her ribs on the console this time. The jet lurched downward, and for a moment she was sure they were going to crash.

"Let go of that!" Starscream's voice came over the control panel. "Just put the seat belt on and don't move."

Doing as she was told, Jenny struggled to get the five point harness around her as Starscream righted himself. As soon as the last buckle was in place he spun left, avoiding the missile that would have hit him directly in the engines. A red warning light flashed on the panel just before she heard five clicks, followed by a rumble as Starscream returned fire. As soon as they were away he banked hard to the right and dropped altitude until they were flying just above the treeline. To avoid the overwhelming awareness that she was most likely about to be blown out of the sky and the dizzying nothingness speeding past just beyond the glass, Jenny turned her attention to the instrument panel. Her focus was now entirely on the little screen, watching as the little blip that she guessed represented Breakaway tried to spin out of the missiles' reach. But he was already banking to follow Starscream, leaving his underside wide open and hampering his maneuverability. The missiles closed in, one clipping his wing as he barrel-rolled and another catching his exhaust, exploding just behind him and sending him careening. The rest missed as he was knocked completely off course.

The engines roared louder as Starscream sought to put some distance between them while Breakaway recovered from the attack. It worked for a few seconds, but then a warning beep on the panel indicated they were under missile lock again. He banked right again, then spun and dipped left in a diagonal serpentine maneuver. There was a small town just ahead and he dropped even lower, making a hairpin turn and bringing a building between them just as the missile would have made contact. Brick and mortar exploded into the air, and Jenny could hear several clanks as they hit the side of the hull. She looked out to see if she could tell where they were, but the blanket of night still shrouded everything, and what she could make of the shingle and metal roofs could be anywhere. Her stomach lurched as he pulled off a combination of moves to dodge power lines and an office building, the force of their passing vibrating the darkened glass windows.

Turning back to the monitor and clenching her teeth, Jenny relocated their pursuit, dodging between the buildings they had just passed. Then to her surprise, Jenny watched Breakaway fall back until he disappeared from the radar altogether. Worried that he might have some sort of masking device, she kept watch on the monitor, looking for even the smallest of blips. Starscream gained altitude, breaking through the cloud cover before leveling out under a blanket of stars, his engines slowing as he decreased speed.

After several minutes with no sign of their pursuit, Jenny released the death grip she had on the seat and sat back. "Not complaining or anything, but I don't get it. Why did he leave?"

"He's built for speed, but he's injured and no one can keep up with _me_." the instrument panel replied. Then after a pause, he said, "_And_ because of you. The Autobots can't stand the thought of one of their little insects coming to harm. Those idiots will spend hours trying to figure out who you are and what I have to do with you. By that time we'll be long gone."

"With Dad dead they won't find much there." she muttered, closing her eyes and leaning her head back on the headrest so her stomach would settle down now that it wasn't tumbling around on the amusement ride from Hell. Wearily, she asked, "So where are we going?"

"A place where their energon detectors can't pick up my signal. But first we need to make a stop. I have none of the necessities that keep you frail humans alive."

Jenny's eyebrows knitted in confusion. "If you're just going to kill me after I tell you what you want to know, why go through all of the trouble?"

"Because I might make use of you later. I can't do that if you're half dead."

"Where are you going to take me to do that? I can't just rob somebody."

"Where do you usually go to get something you need?"

"The store."

"Then that's where we'll go."

"I don't have any money."

A frustrated growl emanated from the console. "Are all of you this stupid and noisy? Just take what you want while I keep the rest of the cowards away."

"That's still stealing."

"Call it 'involuntarily looking out for your well-being'. Besides, if you don't, I will, and I'm sure you'll like my methods a lot less."

"Fine, but promise me you won't kill anyone."

"I don't make promises to insects."

"And I don't rob people. Call it 'involuntarily looking out for my well-being'."

Starscream fell silent, their deal unconfirmed, and Jenny was sure that was his way of saying the argument was finished. They didn't talk for twenty minutes, until the jet began to descend into the lower atmosphere. The sun had risen, illuminating the sky in clear shades of gold and blue. Looking out the cockpit windows, she saw the roofs of buildings belonging to a rural town in a hilly region of what she hoped was still the United States. They spiraled downward, circling a large mart, and it looked like he was going to come down right in the parking lot. People were already running, and one car had pulled into the intersection before the light change, knocking into an oncoming truck. The sudden, harsh sound of grating metal made her cover her ears as cars were carelessly pushed out of the way as they landed. Starscream came to a halt right in front of the doors.

"If you're not back in fifteen minutes I'll blow the whole building up, along with everyone inside."

"Got it." Jenny said as she fumbled out of her seat belt.

Scrambling out of the cockpit as the shield retracted, she slid down the side of the jet and landed on the ground with a hard thud. It took her a few seconds to get her feet under her, but she was soon running inside. The already panicked patrons near the front door screamed and ran when Starscream transformed and rose to his full height, arming his weapons and sweeping them in an arc across the parking lot. As Jenny passed through the automatic doors, she noted that some of the shoppers weren't aware of what was going on outside yet, so she grabbed a buggy, and tried to look like she wasn't going at breakneck speed to get what she needed and get out again. Even still, she practically ran through each aisle, dumping everything from shampoo to ramen noodles in the cart. She almost forgot drinking water, and had to turn back to place several gallons on top of everything else.

By the time she rushed back out the doors, everyone inside was cowering at the back of the store, and no one tried to stop her. There were two patrol cars sitting several yards away from Starscream, lights flashing. The policemen out front were shielded by their car doors, pistols in hand as they shouted for him to surrender. Starscream just laughed at them when they tried to shoot him shortly after. Jenny shouted up to him, and immediately Starscream reverted to a jet, the ramp to his small cargo hold lowering behind him. She shoved buggy and all inside, absently noting that his feet were also his engines, before circling back around and climbing into the cockpit. A shot whizzed by her head as the glass was sliding forward, and she ducked low until it was firmly in place. She fumbled with her seat belt as the engines fired, and was nearly thrown backward as Starscream raced forward, rolling through three more adjoining parking lots to build speed before he took to the sky again.

An hour later they had left land far behind and were now flying over the open water of the ocean. Jenny peeked at it, but didn't look long. She had no idea which part of the ocean they were over, or even which ocean it was. She thought it was the Atlantic, but she couldn't be sure. She started to ask when Starscream descended at a sharp angle and picked up speed, the surface of the water coming up on them fast. Jenny's breath caught in her throat as panic hit her hard, a scream freezing just below her voice as her eyes closed.

She felt the shock of impact, and waited to be crushed by sheer force alone. But they hadn't slowed down any, the engines muffling under the water as Starscream leveled out. Surprised that she wasn't dead or drowning yet, Jenny cracked open an eye to see that they were flying under the water. Amazement washed over her.

"How did you do that? Your engines should be flooded by now and we should be dead."

Starscream chuckled smugly. "Your human technology is so inferior. I'm not a man-made jet, remember?"

"What kind of jet are you? Breakaway looked like a human jet."

"This is the form first given to me on Cybertron, long before you humans quit trotting around on your ugly beasts. My scan memory has been reset, so I've reverted back to my natural state for now."

"Horses aren't ugly." Jenny retorted.

"Says you."

Too worn out to argue further, Jenny looked out the cockpit window as the water flowed by, several sea creatures scurrying out of the way as they passed. A dark shape loomed ahead, and as they neared she could make out the form of a submerged building. The architecture wasn't like anything she had ever seen before, so she assumed that it was built by the Decepticons. Lights flickered on as they approached and large bay doors opened to allow them passage into an empty room. Seawater rushed in with them, filling the room. Starscream came to a halt, and moments later the water started draining away. They had to wait several minutes, and when the water level was low enough, he slid the cockpit shield back so she could get out. He lowered the ramp to his cargo hold and the buggy came sliding out, her items only slightly worse for the trip.

Dropping to the floor, Jenny slumped down to a sit as Starscream transformed above her. Her legs would no longer hold her up, and her head suddenly felt dizzy. The air here was stale, and the sharp odor of seawater permeated everything and turned her stomach. She took several deep breaths, but it only made things worse. Before she could stop it, she bent over and vomited.

"Gross." Starscream sneered as he stepped over her to activate the inner door. It slid open with a slight groan, and the Decepticon disappeared around a corner in the hallway beyond, leaving her alone with her misery.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Starscream stood entranced in front of the monitor, the images from Chicago burning into his mind. Soundwave's satellite hack remained operational even after his death, and all of the feeds had been diverted here and recorded. In fact, it had remained running until the humans replaced the satellite a few years later. He had also designed the power system for this building, using the conductive nature of seawater to produce a sustainable energy source that would run the place for a century. Starscream had to admit, it was a testament to his comrade's thorough work. It was no wonder Soundwave had remained high in Megatron's ranks.

Returning his attention to the screen, he watched his own death first, grimacing at how easily he had been taken down. Then he switched to the feed showing the fall of Megatron and Sentinel Prime, distaste filling him as Optimus sneaked up on his former master and cut him down with ease. There wasn't much to see after that. With their leaders gone, the rest of the disorganized Decepticons were just fodder for the grinder.

Idiots.

XXXXXX

After sitting with her head down for several minutes Jenny felt better, but the smell now wafting up to her from the floor threatened to make her sick all over again. She looked around for something to clean up her mess with, but didn't see anything in the room other than several storage compartments against the wall. Hoping none of them were secured by some kind of automated system, she walked over and pushed the black button next to the first one. It was empty. The second held what looked like spare parts for every kind of vehicle imaginable. Her luck lay with the third, where a large stack of chamois cloths greeted her when the door slid up. Grabbing one, she took it back to the center of the room and did her best to wipe up the vomit. There was a bin in the corner that held more of the same cloths, so she deposited it there, hoping that was the correct thing to do.

Retrieving her buggy of stolen goods, she pushed it through the open doorway and into the hall. The building was silent, except for the sound of a computerized voice in the distance. Were they here alone?

Following the sound, she pushed her cart onward, turning the corner she had seen Starscream disappear down earlier. There was another open doorway ahead, and she could tell the voice came from somewhere inside. When she reached it she peeked inside, a small sense of relief coming over her as she saw Starscream standing alone in front of what looked like a huge computer monitor. She pushed her buggy inside, only to have it catch on a raise in the floor and clatter to a halt. Before she had time to blink Starscream had turned, guns raised, a red laser resting on her chest.

He lowered them a moment later and turned back to the screen. "Don't sneak up on me, worm. It will prove fatal."

"Sorry." she muttered before guiding the buggy to a corner and leaving it there. With no clue as to what she should do next, she walked over to the computer to see what it was that had him so interested. There were several screens overlapping each other on the display, one of which held a map of a city with several red dots on it. One had a blank radar screen similar to the one on his instrument panel. The last two contained text in a language she didn't understand, so she had no idea what they involved.

She had strayed close to him while she was looking, and she wasn't prepared for him to shift to the side. His foot nearly came down on top of her, and would have crushed her if she hadn't jumped away at the last moment, a scream tearing from her throat. Starscream glared at her before scooping her up off the floor where she landed, bringing her close to his face.

"You have to watch out for yourself. I can't be staring at my feet all the time. Now, go sit down somewhere until I need you."

He half-dropped, half-set her back down on the floor. As soon as she was released Jenny moved away from him, deciding whatever he was working on wasn't worth the risk to her person. So she contented herself with sorting through the items in her buggy. She had been careful to not get any food that required refrigeration, since she had no idea where they were heading at the time, and wound up with a lot of canned food. It was as she was setting these aside that she realized that while she thought to grab a sleeping bag, she didn't grab any clothes or a hairbrush. Luckily her hair was short, not that she really wanted it that way. The few times she had grown it out her father had taken great pleasure in pulling it, cutting it, burning it, anything he could think of to humiliate her.

As for her clothes, she would just have to make do with what she had. She could wash them when she bathed, and she could wrap up in her sleeping bag while they dried. Even if she didn't, it probably wouldn't matter. Starscream was as likely to take an interest in whether or not she was naked as the moon was to start strobing in neon colors at night.

Thinking about her father made a gloom settle around her, so she pulled her sleeping bag out before shoving the buggy back toward the wall. She spread it close by and lay down inside, curling up in a protective ball the way she had taught herself to sleep. Closing her eyes, she tried to forget everything that happened since last night and let herself drift into unconsciousness.

Starscream turned to find his human curled up inside a thick section of fabric, fast asleep. It was a curious thing to him, the way they seemed to die, but not. And they did it every night, and whenever they were very injured. While Cybertronians rested, they never lost consciousness unless their spark was destroyed, and even then they didn't dream.

With nothing else to do he sat down beside her, noting that she never even shifted, despite the noise he made. Leaning against the wall, he closed his eyes and let his thoughts drift.

Several hours later, the human started turning restlessly beneath the covers. He heard her whimper several times, then grew still again. Suddenly she jumped up, a sob wrenching from her as the sleeping bag fell to the floor. She scrambled over to him, eyes unseeing.

"No!" she screamed. "Don't touch me!"

Then she started climbing over his leg, blindly reaching for anything that would help her get away from whatever she imagined was chasing her. Up she went until she was clawing her way over his chest. He easily plucked her from him with one hand, and seeing that she still wasn't aware of where she was, he gave her a less-than-gentle shake.

"Hey! What are you doing?"

Her wild eyes focused on him at last, and her shoulders sagged as relief washed over her face. He could see clear liquid streaming down her cheeks, and he frowned.

"Gah, do you worms have to leak something every time you turn around? You could rust your way through an iron block in a week."

"I'm sorry." she said, pulling one arm free of his fingers to wipe furiously at her face.

Now that she wasn't frantic to get away from her nightmares, Starscream set her back down on the sleeping bag. Her whole body was trembling, and she looked like she should have when she first encountered him. But instead of being afraid of him, she was afraid of nothing, and for some reason that disturbed him. When she lay back down he got up and went over to the computer, booting up the human's internet. His fingers flew over the keys as he typed in several search words and hit enter. After discarding several initial choices, he pulled up a web page and began reading. The first two paragraphs proved unrevealing, but then there was a list of symptoms that matched everything she had just experienced. And with what little he knew of her father, the situations described seemed to line up as well.

Turning his head, he saw that she was still awake, sitting cross-legged on the sleeping bag, staring miserably at nothing. Walking over to her, he scooped her up without a word and carried her over to the computer screen. Lifting her so she could see the screen easily, he spoke.

"Is this what's wrong with you?"

She didn't answer, but silently nodded after a long pause. Satisfied with her answer, he returned her to the sleeping bag before going back to the page. He could hear her quietly sobbing behind him in humiliation, but ignored it as he continued reading. There was no cure for the condition, and the only recommended treatments listed involved counseling and group therapy. There was no way he could do that, so she would have to find some other way to get over it.

Shutting down the page, he returned to sitting against the wall. The human's tears had stopped and she now sat dejectedly beside him, her head in her hands. He stared at her a long moment. He knew this loneliness she was feeling, had felt it himself every time Megatron publicly humiliated him before forcing him from his sight in shame. And every time he came crawling back like a whipped dog to beg at his heels. Even now, when there was no real reason for him to be here, he sat in an empty base full of nonexistent ghosts, waiting to do nothing. If it weren't for the fact that the Autobots couldn't detect his signature here, he would leave right now.

It was then that her voice drifted up to him, sounding infinitely weary. "Can we get this talk over with now?"

Reaching down, he picked up the human, holding her in his palm as he rested his forearm against his lifted knee. She looked up at him, her face still shadowed in pain.

"What is your name?"

"Jenny Aldron."

"What happened after the Decepticons were defeated in Chicago?"

"Things went back to normal, I guess. Except for the fact that the Autobots weren't this big government secret anymore. You don't see them walking around, but everyone knows they're here. And we have a new holiday now. Galactic Freedom Day."

Starscream stared at her a moment, an unreadable expression on his face. "Do you know what happened to the Decepticons' bodies after that?"

"No. They never did say."

"How did I end up in your barn?"

"I'm not sure exactly _how_ it happened. I heard a noise from the porch and when I went in there was a little robot lying on the floor and a glowing blue box on the table. It started shaking and jumping around, then all my father's spare parts started flying around and attaching to the box. They changed shaped and sparks flew everywhere. It was like watching an invisible mechanic working at hyper-speed. Then it was finished and you woke up... and left."

"Did the little robot say anything to you?"

"No. He looked dead."

"Where is he now?"

"In you, I guess. The box landed on him when it fell in the floor and that's the last I saw of him."

Looking a little repulsed, Starscream turned away. "I see. That still doesn't explain how my spark ended up there. What did your father know about it?"

At the mention of her Dad, Jenny grew quiet. "I doubt he even knew what it was. He used to buy bulk automotive parts from salvage yards. It could have been in with the bunch he got last year. ...Before Mom died he used to tinker with things all the time. I guess the habit of gathering materials just stayed."

She seemed to shrink into herself, her voice barely a whisper as she finished. She was no longer looking at him, and the expression on her face was the same one she had when she woke from her nightmare. Starscream leaned closer, curious. "Do you still feel afraid of him, Jenny, even though the insect that hurt you is dead?"

She nodded before venturing a look up at him. "Do you really… think I'm weak?"

Starscream scoffed. "All humans are weak compared to me. But I still don't understand you. You fear the things in your mind, and your father, but you are not afraid of me. You do realize who I am, don't you? The things even one of the Decepticons did to the humans should be enough to make you hate us for an eternity. And I was second only to Megatron."

"A father is supposed to protect his family, and care for them. There was something wrong with mine; all he knew how to do was hurt people, and no one ever tried to stop him. My mother died when I was three, and my aunt always made excuses for him. You say you're my enemy, but you were the only one who stood up to him. You could have killed me or left me at his mercy, but you didn't. Should I fear you for that?"

"You should fear me for what I'm capable of doing to you."

It was Jenny's turn to let loose a bitter laugh. "What? That you could kill me with your little finger and not bat an eye? Of course you can. You're a giant alien robot. But you're wrong if you expect me to be afraid of you for that." Her voice dropped as she looked away from him. "I've been betrayed by the one person who was supposed to protect me nearly every day. Believe me, no physical pain compares to the way my soul has bled for that man."

"Betrayal is part of life. You should thank me for doing you a favor."

"It's funny; there were days that I wanted him dead so badly it was all I could think about. But now that I'm alone, I just feel lost without him. But I don't expect you to understand that."

"I understand better than you might think."

They regarded each other as silence stretched through the room. And just like that he felt a bond being forged between himself and the human girl. He didn't want it, but it was there nonetheless. Her strength in the face of her vulnerability captivated him. He watched as she began to examine his hand, tracing her fingers over one of his as it curled around her. She stared at his chest for a few moments before climbing out of his palm, dropping down onto his outstretched leg. Walking along his thigh, she stopped when she reached his torso, laying both of her hands, and then her head against his chest piece.

"What are you doing now?" he asked exasperated, staring down at her.

"There's a hum coming from your chest."

"What about it?"

"It's...strange...but kinda nice." she mumbled as she dropped to a sit and turned to let her legs dangle over the edge of his thigh, her back against his chest piece. She closed her eyes, her head still resting against him. "And you're warm, not cold like I would expect a robot to be."

Starscream watched as the corner of her lips lifted in a soft smile. After a few minutes she drifted back into sleep. She slumped into him, unconsciously seeking the mechanical heat produced by his moving parts and the consumption of energon. She began shifting to get more comfortable, so he picked up the sleeping bag and draped it over her. After a while he grew tired of the sight of her, so he closed his eyes after curling one hand around her body. It would be inconvenient if she rolled off of him during the night and broke something. Humans were bother enough without being ill or injured.

The soft sound of her breathing pervaded the room, the measured cadence of it grabbing his attention in the otherwise silence. He listened to it for a long while, lacking any other sort of stimulation while his eyes were closed. It made him think of what she had said about the hum she heard coming from him. He found himself pleased with the idea that she enjoyed his presence, even if it was in a small way. It made him feel wanted for being nothing more than himself, something he was sure had never happened to him before. Strangely comforted by her in return, he let himself drift in the rhythm of the small life lying on his chest.

The hours passed undisturbed, and as dawn neared a mile above them, Jenny began to stir. Starscream opened his amber eyes, fully alert. Tightening his hold on her, he rolled to the side and set her down on the floor in her sleeping bag so she could wake at her own pace. He went to the supply room to refresh himself and when he returned she was sitting up, eating some kind of red and tan substance out of a container. There was a man with a white hat on the label and words proclaiming that the contents were 'ravioli'.

Noticing his glance, Jenny stopped chewing. "What? I know it's better warm, but this is the best I could do in a pinch."

Bending low, he extended his hand and flexed his fingers. Taking the hint she set the can in his palm. He lifted it up and examined it a moment before training his homing laser on it. The paper label was burnt to ashes a moment later. He set the steaming and slightly blackened can on the floor without a word and straightened up before moving over to the computer and turning it on. He ignored the soft thanks that emanated from behind him.

He busied himself with locating the Autobots and missed when she had finished her meal or when she got up and left the room. He only realized she was gone when the security cameras spread throughout the building picked her up and alerted him to a foreign presence. Silencing the alarm, he watched her as she set about exploring the massive complex. She wandered from room to room, curiously examining everything she found. At first she was very cautious, but when she realized that there really was no one else here, she grew bolder. A chuckle rolled over Starscream when she nearly took her own head off fiddling with one of Megatron's pulse cannons in the armory, accidentally firing it and blasting a crater in one of the reinforced walls.

After about an hour she headed back toward him, and he shut the camera screen down when she was just outside the door. He refocused his attention on his previous task as she came to stand a safe distance at his side.

"Have fun, did you?" he asked.

"There really isn't any more of you left, is there?"

"That's right." he replied quietly.

Scooping her up, he deposited her on his shoulder. "Now sit still. I can't have you putting any more holes in the building. We _are_ underwater."

"You saw that?" she squeaked in embarrassment.

"Yes."

Face red, she focused on the monitors before her. There was a list of Autobots on one screen, a map on another and one filled with text in the same language as before. Time wore on as Starscream did one thing and another with the computer, never seeming to tire as he worked. Jenny found herself relaxing as she sat on the metal plate between his massive shoulder and his head, her legs slung on either side of the metal ridge that connected his cockpit to the engines when he was transformed. She wasn't afraid of falling, even though she would surely break something, if not everything, if she did. Resting her head against him and closing her eyes, she started a conversation just to break the monotony.

"So, were you always a soldier, or did you do something before that?"

"I was a scientist."

"Really? That's what I was going to go to school for. What did you study?"

"Energy was my primary focus, but I worked on a number of projects."

"What made you give it up?"

"I was bored with it. And when Megatron came along I took the opportunity to do something else. He wielded power so easily. I thought if I stayed with him I could learn to do it too."

In a talking mood, Starscream told her about the facility he oversaw before Megatron inducted him into the Decepticons, and about the dark energon that turned the tide of the war in his former master's favor. Jenny talked about the farm she was raised on, and about some of her family, but she avoided the subject of her father as often as possible.

A while later he set her down so she could eat again, and the conversation began to wane as she fixed her food. When she was done she glanced over to where he was still at the computer working. She didn't know why, but a question had been nagging at her since she explored the underwater building. Clearing her throat, she asked,

"Starscream, now that the Decepticons are gone, what are you going to do?"

"Die." came the reply from the other side of his back.

She nearly dropped her pack of crackers. "What?"

He stopped working and turned to her, a deep frown on his face. "My race is all but extinct, and there is no way to revive it. I can't serve the human worms the way the Autobots do, and I refuse to hide from them forever. I will go and face them, and die in battle the way I was meant to."

"Suicide? Why? You were just brought back. I can't believe you would want to throw an opportunity like this away."

"An opportunity for what? My ultimate goal in serving Megatron was to gain control of dark energon and lead the Decepticons myself. Now both are gone. It's better to be dead than be the leader of nothing."

"But what about your science?"

He scoffed. "I'm done with it. And the Autobots would never leave me to live in peace. If they didn't execute me immediately, they would watch me like a bad dog. That's no way to live."

Jenny's voice grew quiet. "So, when is this showdown supposed to happen?"

"Soon. Why, do you want to come with me?" he asked.

"Yes."

"That's stupid. They will kill you just for associating with me."

"No they won't. You said yourself that they care whether or not a human is harmed. Besides, if you're determined to do this, you shouldn't be alone. I'll be your second."

"My what?"

"Your second. A long time ago when people used to duel to the death with swords and pistols, they took along a close friend to witness the battle and avenge them if there was any foul play."

"We aren't friends."

"No? Well, feel free to pick someone else." she replied sarcastically, gesturing to the empty room.

Starscream scowled at her, but his irritation passed in the face of his curiosity about the human customs regarding dueling. "And if the fight's not fair? How is one puny human going to avenge me against the Autobots?"

"Uh... I'll throw a rock at them?"

Starscream groaned. "That's what I thought."

Jenny sighed. "Okay, okay. I'll refer them to a bad mechanic."

Starscream paused a moment before he burst out laughing. The sound echoed loudly in the room. He sobered a moment later and shook his head at her. "Fine, do what you want. It'll save me the trouble of having to kill you anyway."

She gave him a genuine smile. "You were never going to kill me, Starscream."

He stared at her for a long moment, unsure of what he should say to her. She was being bold with him, something he didn't really expect from her. But then again, she wasn't anything like a human was supposed to be. At last he shrugged and turned his head away from her, letting the room fall back into silence.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Jenny woke and straightened up, ignoring the stiffness in her body as she let her sleeping bag fall to her waist. For the first time in as long as she could remember her nightmares didn't chase her as she slept. Leaning her head back against Starscream's torso, she looked up into his face. His eyes were closed, but she knew he was awake. A moment later his eyelids slid up and glowing amber bored into her. It had been nearly a week since their talk about facing the Autobots, and with each passing day they seemed to grow a little bit closer. She had no idea why he let her continue to sleep in his lap, but she had a feeling he took as much comfort from her presence as she did his. They were two life-battered loners with a ticking clock over their heads, just making the most of what time was left to them.

Without a word Starscream picked her up and set her next to her buggy of stolen goods before rising to his feet. She looked at the contents dejectedly. There was only a little water left and the food was headed that way fast.

"We're gonna have to get more supplies soon." she remarked, half to herself.

"No, we won't." Starscream remarked as he watched several blips move across the map on one of the computer monitors. "Today's the day."

Jenny's heart sank into her stomach. "The Autobots? You really want to go through with this?"

He half-turned his head to look at her. "I have to. You don't."

Not wanting to argue with him this morning, Jenny sighed and set about eating what she figured would be her last meal. Who would have guessed it would be cold canned spaghetti? Even death row criminals got to eat steak. Life really liked to shit on you sometimes.

After she was finished she ditched her can in the bin in the corner, cleaned up and waited for Starscream to return from the supply room. He returned without a word, moving over to the computer to begin the shutdown sequence for the building. It was pointless really, but to him it was a matter of pride. Their last stronghold would not be taken.

Once everything was in order they walked to the hangar bay. Starscream transformed into his Cybertronian jet form, sliding back the cockpit shield so she could get in. Once she was safely inside the outer doors opened, flooding the room with water. Starscream fired his engines to keep from smashing into the wall behind him. They tumbled around in the wash for a second, then they were out in the open ocean.

Jenny looked out the window, watching the vast emptiness spread out all around her. The water was a deeper blue than the darkest October sky and below them blackness yawned up at her.

"Have you ever been to the bottom?" she asked.

"Yes. Have you?"

"Of course not. Only scientists with equipment costing millions of dollars are allowed to go to the bottom. I'm a poor farm girl from Illinois."

Without another word, Starscream began to dive.

The darkness enclosed them, and Jenny felt the pressure of the ocean water as they dropped deeper. Her ears popped and a wave of panic rolled over her. She had forgotten about the dangers of going too far down in the water. What was it called when you came back up and your body couldn't handle it? Decompression Illness. As soon as they headed back to the surface, she would be toast.

"Starscream, we need to go back up, now. My body can't handle this."

There was a click and a whirr in response, followed by a mechanical hum and Starscream chuckled.

"I may not be able to feed you on my own, but I'm not stupid. You're perfectly pressurized. Now, look below us."

Jenny looked down, and her breath caught in her throat. Thousands of tiny dots of light were suspended below them like a lost blanket of stars. They dropped lower and she could see them moving around. She had known about the ocean animals that used phosphorescence in the dark to hunt, but to see it first hand was... indescribable. A squid, lit up like a UFO drifted close to them, curious about its unusual visitor.

Then they were deeper, below even the cold-dwelling creatures. Starscream slowed and flipped on his lights. After blinking to adjust to the sudden glare, Jenny could see what looked like a perfectly flat beach spread out in front of them. There were some jagged rocks ahead, which turned out to be the skeleton of a whale that had died miles above and drifted to rest here. Starfish and squid crawled over the carcass, feeding on the remains.

Tall columns of rock that looked like termite mounds jutted out ahead of them. White ash drifted upward into the water before raining down like the fallout from a volcano.

"What is that?"

"A hydrothermal vent. The opening goes all the way to the core of the planet. See the creatures on it?"

"Oh, I see them!"

"This is the only place on Earth that this species of shrimp exist. If the vent collapses, the entire species will become extinct."

"That's amazing... and kind of sad."

An alarm sounded and Starscream banked hard to the right.

"Is it time?" Jenny asked gloomily.

"No. I want to show you one more thing."

They headed toward the surface, Starscream's thrusters firing as soon as they were free of the water. Jenny was pressed back into her seat from the force of the acceleration, her chest squeezing as she tried not to panic, but it felt as if she would be pulled apart any second.

"We're going too fast!" she yelled above the roar of the engines.

"Close your eyes."

Not knowing what else to do, she let her lids slide shut, maintaining her death-grip on the seat. Almost immediately the pressure in her chest began to ease and her fear began to subside. A few minutes later a sense of elation took over and she found herself smiling in spite of herself. "It's like..."

"...not moving at all?"

"Yeah."`

They fell silent as Jenny let the sensation of weightless eternity wash over her, nearly a half hour passing before Starscream's voice broke into her reverie.

"We're here."

Jenny opened her eyes and released a gasp.

They were flying underground, through an empty tunnel just large enough to allow Starscream passage. The twisting walls looked like something out of an alien movie, lined with shiny black rock, splotched with a silvery white mineral that gave it a metallic appearance. Small ridges rippled the surface, like the underwater sand of a cove combed by the tide.

A second later they reached the end, the opening ahead glowing with a strange orange light. Starscream slowed to a halt as they entered a cavernous room, landing on one of the naturally formed rock bridges that spanned the space and spiderwebbed beneath them. Further down a bubbling floor of molten lava slowly swirled, lapping against the room's walls and the lowest of the black rock bridges. Jenny couldn't do anything but stare at the alien landscape around her, sheer awe rendering her speechless.

"The lava has risen and fallen without venting at the surface for millions of years, forming snowflake obsidian out of the impurities in the molten rock. The temperature in here would kill you before you could take your first breath of lethally toxic air."

"It's beautiful." she finally managed to answer.

"It's the only place on Earth I've found that reminds me of Cybertron."

"Where are we at?"

"Look up."

Tilting her head back, Jenny peered through the top of the cockpit. High above them she could see a small opening. An icy blue sky lay beyond, ripples of the aurora borealis passing overhead.

"We're in the Arctic? How did you manage to find this place?"

"I spent a lot of time here." he answered vaguely.

"Thank you for sharing this with me."

Before Starscream could answer, another warning signal beeped on the console and a screen popped up with text in Cybertronian.

"It's time to go. The Autobots are in position."

She said nothing as they left the lava field, traveling out of the earth through the natural channel they entered in. Jenny stared out over the dazzling snow, stretching all the way to the horizon. Then Starscream picked up speed and she was forced to close her eyes again. When she opened them again Starscream was spiraling downward over a wide plain covered with tall rocks. She had no idea where they were, but if she had to guess she would say they were either in Africa or Australia. Starscream landed a moment later, transforming after she climbed down to the ground. He turned his back to her and started to walk off without a word. Jenny ran to catch up to him.

"Wait. What are you doing? Where are you going?"

"Nowhere. The Autobots will be coming across that ridge in five minutes. This is your last chance. Leave now."

She stood there slightly stunned before a determined look creased her brow. "I already told you I'm staying with you."

He started to protest, but the expression on her face made him pause. He knew exactly the way she felt all too well. He had known it most intensely while he sat alone on the moon of Saturn, staring off into the eternity of space. But like her, he didn't have the courage to just end it. Which was the exact reason they were both here right now. Better to follow another to a doomed end than stand cold and alone... Anything but alone.

An inhuman shout on the ridge above them interrupted his thoughts and had both of their heads turning. "Too late now." Starscream whispered before reaching down to scoop up Jenny and deposit her on his shoulder. "Hold on tight."

They closed in on him quickly; Optimus Prime in the front, Mirage circling to cover the rear, Jetfire and Ratchet on either side of him while Breakaway cruised idly overhead, no doubt itching for a second fight with him. When they were about a hundred yards away they stopped, a tense silence falling around them.

"Put the human down, Starscream" Optimus Prime demanded as he took a step forward, his commanding voice hard to ignore. Starscream didn't answer, but tilted his head so he could glance at Jenny.

"Fly away from them and fight in the air." she said, increasing her grip on his shoulder. "You said yourself that Breakaway is no match for you."

"Your body won't be able to handle it when we crash. No, I'll fight on the ground this time. Besides," he said, determination leaking into his voice, "I have no reason to run."

Taking his words as a refusal, the Autobots drew their weapons. Jenny counted four guns, two curved swords, two sets of missiles that were no doubt trained right on them, and one wicked looking great axe that was glowing red with unreleased energy. Thankfully if any one of them hit her it would mean instant death. Starscream wouldn't be so lucky with his stronger body. Suddenly, avoiding a fatal jet crash felt rather moot. Maybe he was just squeamish about the thought of her mangled corpse bleeding all over him. He did seem to have a thing about body fluids.

"I guess they decided that saving you isn't worth letting me go a second time. I hope you're ready for this." Starscream said, interrupting her thoughts.

She took an even firmer grip on him. "I'm not afraid."

With a nod of approval, Starscream turned his attention away from her, stalking toward his opponents. He lifted one arm, the hand transforming into a spinning blade while he detached his missile launcher and lifted it to his shoulder. He stopped fifty yards away from Optimus Prime, who held the giant axe in both hands.

"You don't have to do this, Starscream. Megatron is gone. You can still join us, be the bot you used to be. Let his agenda die with him."

As menacing as they looked, their response surprised Jenny. But she had no doubts that as soon as Starscream rejected their offer they would attack. He straightened beneath her and Jenny felt her breathing quicken as a sweat broke out on her body.

"It's too late for that, Optimus. Let's finish this already."

"Very well."

And then the tension broke like a damn beneath a swollen river.

As if given an invisible signal, Breakaway swept low overhead, the roar of his engines deafening as he passed. Starscream ducked, nearly missing sight of Mirage as he charged in from behind. Pivoting right, he blocked both curved swords with his saw blade. Mirage drew back to strike again, but was thrown back when a missile caught him in the arm, grazing him before it exploded midair.

Starscream had little time to recover as Jetfire rushed in, attempting to snatch the human clinging to his shoulder before she was crushed in the melee. Stepping back he caught Jetfire in the side with an elbow before jumping up and firing his engines, the flames hitting him right in the face before delivering a kick that sent him rolling toward Ratchet and interrupting the medic's line of fire.

Mirage was back with the screech of metal on metal, hacking at Starscream's right arm in an attempt to disable at least one of his weapons. Sparks flew from the contact, then Starscream forced him back and an all out brawl between the two began.

If Jenny had thought that flying with Starscream was the amusement ride from hell, then this was the roller coaster Satan built himself. The force hitting her as he twisted and dodged was enough to send her feet out from under her. She held on tightly as open air swirled beneath her, the ground an eternity away.

Then Optimus was in front of him and swung his axe at his head, forcing Starscream to stumble back to avoid the blow that would have hit Jenny as well. Ratchet came in from the side, kicking his feet out from under him. Starscream went down on his side, rolling out of the way. Jenny's fingers slipped and she was thrown free, suspended momentarily in midair until one of Starscream's flailing arms hit her, sending her crashing toward the earth in a dizzying flight of pain.

Starscream tried to catch her with his other arm as she was separated from him, but she slipped through his fingers and out of reach. There was nothing he could do but watch as she hit the ground hard, jarring her spine and sending a scream tearing from her throat. She rolled a half-dozen times and went still.

Jenny felt bile rising in her throat, her stomach lurching when she stopped. The last thing she remembered was the taste of dust in her mouth and nose before she passed out.

XXXXXX

Starscream looked back once at the body lying still in the dirt. He struggled to keep from going to her, to scoop her up and take off. It was most likely useless anyway. The force of her fall had most likely killed her. Pushing down the hurt, he let anger boil up inside him instead. Climbing to his feet, he pulled a syringe from a compartment on his chest piece, the intense glow of red energon filling the glass vial. Lifting his free arm he flexed his elbow, exposing one of the hoses that made up his energon system. Jamming the needle into the rubber, he emptied the contents and threw it to the side.

Immediately a rush of energy rolled through him, sending his senses flying. His body struggled to accommodate, the boost making him feel more than a little drunk on power. His breathing grew shallow and rapid as the world slowed down around him. He knew it wouldn't last long; he never got to finish the modifications that would stabilize the compound. So he leveled a maniacal grin on Ratchet, who had risen as well.

"You're all going to die." he rasped.

He flew toward them, blades spinning from both hands. He lost his missiles when he had fallen. But that was okay. He was feeling reckless and angry, and hand to hand combat suited him at the moment. Ratchet met him and they traded blows, sparks flying from metal hitting metal. Nearly equal in strength, neither gained ground until Jetfire moved in, distracting him. Fighting both of them at once made him lose ground and dividing his attention began to cost him. Ratchet scored a deep gouge on his chest, hot fluid dripping down the metal as he began to leak energon. But he managed to wound Jetfire, the blades on his hand digging deep into the other's arm.

Jetfire fell back as Breakaway moved in to take his place, transforming as he landed on the ground. He grabbed Starscream's arm, pulling him off balance as Ratchet fired his gun into his shoulder. The arm fell limp, the pain dulled by the power still surging through him. Starscream headbutted Breakaway hard, sending him reeling before he spun around and caught Ratchet in the throat with his wing, forcing the medic to retreat.

As soon as the fighting slowed, his body grew heavy and his joints seemed to stiffen all at once. The effects of the red energon were wearing off and he was beginning to suffer from the backlash. Soon he wouldn't have enough energy to take off from the ground, much less fight. He tried to maintain his defensive stance as he caught his breath, but he felt himself sagging anyway. Sensing an opening, the Autobots moved back in. Mirage was the first one to strike, mercilessly digging one of his blades into Starscream's left eye until it hung from the socket, utterly useless. Damn him, he hated being blinded again.

Optimus Prime was back with his axe, burying it deeply into Starscream's thigh. There was a pulse of released energy, shorting his circuits and throwing off his balance. If it weren't for his wings he would have fallen. The blade was pulled free and more fluid began to gush out of his leg. Starscream had been gravely wounded before, but this was by far the worst pain he had ever felt. It was a good thing it was far too late to back out now, because his courage was quickly fading. The axe fell again, this time across his other shoulder. A few more hits like that and he would be able to rest at last. But he had a parting gift for the Autobots, one they would not soon forget. He just had to reach critical failure for the program to activate. Stumbling back, he quit fighting altogether and waited for the next blow to land.

Jetfire moved in next, leveling his gun on the back of his neck. He fired off several rounds, aiming to sever the wires that conducted feeling. Starscream turned his head with a squeak of broken rods and busted joints and stared at him with his good eye. It looked like he mouthed a 'thank you' before he spoke.

"That was a mistake, Autobot. Critical failure... Achieved."

There was a high-pitched whine that built in intensity as Starscream's EMP mechanism overloaded. An invisible wall of energy exploded outward with a deafening roar, hitting all of the Autobots and sending them tumbling backwards like leaves in the wind, their electrical systems temporarily paralyzed. Starscream stood there for a second, sighed, then collapsed to the ground.

It was finally over.

XXXXXX

Jenny groaned and opened her eyes. Her head was throbbing and it felt like at least two of her ribs were broken. Coughing and wincing from it, she climbed to her feet and looked around. Her pain was forgotten when she saw Starscream lying on the ground, his attackers nowhere in sight. Holding one hand to her side she limped over to him, relief flooding over her when she heard the quiet hum that meant he was still alive. He didn't look at her as she approached, so she walked up to his head. One eye was useless, the other one closed. Reaching down she lay a hand on his cheek and spoke softly.

"Starscream?"

He opened his eye and looked at her. Dark fluid dripped from his lips as he struggled to speak. "Jenny... You're still alive."

She fought to keep the panic out of her voice as she asked, "What can I do to help you? I don't know what to do."

"Nothing. I'm finished."

She stared down at the damage done to him. The jagged holes in his body made her sick to her stomach. It had to hurt like hell, no matter how different their physiology was. And the ones who did it were only temporarily disabled. Glancing back at one of the Autobots laying not far away, she tried not to visibly shake as she said, "Starscream... I'm afraid."

Starscream chuckled, hot liquid spilling from his mouth, making him spit. "Now she's scared."

He tried to lift his hand and touch her, and finding it useless, dropped it back to land on the ground with a thud.

"I want you to do something for me."

She looked up at his face. "What's that?"

He moved his good hand down to his chest piece, popping open a panel before handing her a plastic case containing several discs. "Here." he said, "Hold on to this."

"What is it?"

"My last thousand years' worth of research. I copied it onto discs compatible with your computers, along with the programs that run the simulations. It would take you a lifetime to go through it all, but I want you to use what you can. Don't let it go to waste."

"I won't." she promised.

"I know... I have one more thing for you. Climb on my chest. There is a box in the middle. Open it."

She did as he asked, uncaring of the jagged metal that cut into her skin as she sat sprawled on top of him. Her blood dripped onto the metal of his chest, mingling with his before gravity bore it to the ground.

"Now what?"

"See the crystal inside? It holds my spark. When it stops glowing take it out. Then run away from here, and tell no one you have it. Keep it with you and you will never be alone. I will protect you from the insects that try to hurt you."

She turned her head away from him, a trickle of tears running down her cheek. "You can't admit that you like even one insect?"

A wry smile twisted his face as he looked at her, watching as more tears fell down her face. She was crying for him.

"Well, maybe one." he whispered.

Jenny turned back to him, crying harder as the amber glow faded from Starscream's eye, followed by the blue glow in his chest, leaving only a lifeless heap of metal in front of her. Swiping at her eyes so she could see past the blurry tears, she reached into his chest and wrapped her hand around the crystal. God, it was so hot. She gave a hard tug as she felt her fingers blister, but it wouldn't budge. She heard one of the Autobots stirring behind her, and yanked harder. It came loose in her hands, the force dislodging her and sending her tumbling down Starscream's torso to land in the dirt.

Cradling the rapidly cooling crystal against her chest, she fought to rise to her feet. Blood trickled down her leg, and the pain of standing took her breath. Fighting it off she took a step forward, and nearly collapsed. Biting her lip to distract her from the pain in her back and legs, she took another step, then another, until she forced herself to run as fast as she could. A strange voice called out to her but she ignored it, determined to put as much distance between herself and the fight as she could.

She didn't look back as a canon of a gun fired, knowing the Autobots were delivering a final blow to make sure Starscream was dead, unaware that she already held the last bit of his life in her hands. Unable to run for long and afraid she would be spotted leaving, she looked for a place to hide. Ducking into a nearby crevice of rock, she sat down dejectedly to wait until everything was quiet before trying to make it to the nearest human civilization, a village sitting on the hill several miles above the basin.

XXXXXX

"How are the repairs coming, Ratchet?" Optimus Prime asked as the Autobots regrouped and gathered around the body of the fallen Starscream. NEST would be arriving shortly to collect the body and melt it down, ensuring that there would be no chance of resurrecting him again.

"Fine, sir. None are mortally wounded."

Mirage scoffed as he held his arm under Ratchet's healing ray. "Of course there aren't. That tin can wasn't worth the rubber burnt off my tires pulling out of a parking lot."

Jetfire looked away and frowned as he approached his leader, the gesture catching Optimus Prime's attention.

"What is it, Jetfire?"

"The human survived her fall. Her tracks indicate she headed in the direction of the village to the north."

"I'm glad she survived, and she'll be able to find help there. Good work, Jetfire." Optimus replied.

"Should we follow her, sir?" Ratchet asked.

"No. Let her go. The human military will only interrogate her and there is nothing more about the Decepticons we need to know." Noticing that Jetfire's frown only intensified, he added, "Was there something else, Jetfire?"

"Don't you think there was something strange about all this?"

"Like what?" Breakaway asked as he strode over to join the conversation. Optimus gestured for Jetfire to continue.

"I've known Starscream a long time, sir. I've fought both with and against him. His superior battle tactics kept him high in Megatron's ranks no matter how many times he tried to betray him. And before that, there wasn't anyone among the Seekers who even came close to matching him in skill." He cast a sidelong glance at Mirage. "Even if he were nearly dead he could cause far more damage than this. And he always knew when to call it quits."

"What are you trying to say?" Mirage inquired with an indignant huff.

"I'm saying that if no one's dead but him, that is the way he planned it."

"But, why?" Breakaway asked.

Jetfire turned and started to walk away, a small smile playing on his lips as images of Starscream's last moments played in his head. When the EMP burst went off, he was knocked against a rock pillar, breaking his momentum when the others were thrown nearly out of sight. Paralyzed but conscious, he had seen the human girl go to his former friend, watched as she cried over him before taking off when the Autobots began to stir. When he was finally able to move, Jetfire was the one who fired the final shot into Starscream's chest before the others arrived, obliterating all evidence of his missing energon crystal. He wasn't betraying the Autobots by any means, there weren't any Decepticons left to benefit from it, and no harm would come from preserving the secret of Starscream's redemption. But to those who never knew him before Megatron's overwhelming influence took over, it would just appear as a weakness. Even as an enemy, he had more respect for him than that.

Feeling the others' eyes on him, Jetfire shrugged his shoulders. "Who knows what that guy was thinking? I'm just saying there was something off about him this time around."

"Yeah, way off." Mirage grumbled.

Behind Jetfire, Mirage yelped as a rock flew from out of nowhere and smacked him in the back of the head.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Epilogue

A siren started blaring in the control room, making Jenny's head snap up from her computer. A frown creased her face as her coworkers all jumped to their feet. Rising a little more slowly, she looked at the scared faces that turned toward her for guidance.

"Alright people, this is the real deal. Shut down all the computers except for the main and begin evacuation immediately. Time is short, so take nothing with you."

She was proud of how calm she sounded in the face of certain destruction. The only way her sector of the energy plant would receive a warning was if the whole place was about to blow up. And the more they watched news about the impending war with the New Alliance, the more likely it became. Especially since their location in the Arctic was leaked by a disgruntled former employee, one she was sure didn't live long after his indiscretion.

Shutting down her own computer where she was running a simulation on a modified red energon molecule, she moved to the main. The nuclear reactors in front of her were humming in a steady rhythm, a glow of bright yellow lighting her face. Below her she could see the shaft that ran all the way to the core of the planet, where the generators drew their power from the motion of the lava rotating around the iron center. The temperature on the other side of the glass barrier was hot enough to melt the skin from her bones in a matter of seconds, and incinerate her entirely shortly thereafter.

"Dr. Aldron, it's time to go." her assistant, Tess, said from behind her right shoulder.

"Go ahead, Tess. Someone has to stay behind and try to keep the core temperature steady."

"But the bombers will be here any second! You know this is the first place they will hit."

Jenny gave her a wry smile as she turned and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I am the only one who doesn't have a family to go home to. I designed the system and know it better than anyone. If someone has to stay behind, it should be me. Now go on before you get caught in the blast."

With a nod of farewell, Tess turned and ran from the room, the heavy polysteel door coming down behind her, locking Jenny in the room alone. Neither of them said what both of them knew. If the reactor blew it didn't matter how far any of them ran, none would escape the blast. It was just easier to run than turn and face certain destruction. Hope and fear would speed them as far as their feet would carry them, even if it would never be enough.

But Jenny had never been afraid a day in her life. She wasn't about to start now. Besides, she had faced her death once before and survived it. Automatically, her hand reached inside her blouse and pulled out the crystal necklace that hung over her heart. It was a chunky thing, but she barely felt its weight anymore. In fact, the only time she really thought about it was the few occasions it wasn't around her neck. She had worn it every day since she was eighteen, just like she promised him.

Running her fingers over the smooth surface in a long-established habit, she turned her attention to the monitor, watching the numbers fluctuate by mere hundredths of a percent. She was the top scientist in the world in the field of energy: nuclear, energon and otherwise, but _he_ was the reason she started it all. She had worked her entire life trying to find a compatible energy force to bring him back to her, but every theory, every experiment had failed. Under the guise of working in the Autobots' best interest, she had even been able to examine the Key of Leadership, but wasn't allowed to run tests or even hold it in her hands. Without the lost All-Spark, he truly was separated from her forever.

A high-pitched whine from above caught her attention, and she quickly entered a sequence in the computers. The shielding around the reactors vibrated with unleashed energy. She hoped that when the missile hit, the energy would deflect enough of the impact force to protect the volatile cores. Even if it did mean that she, the room around her, and the entire floor she was on would immediately be incinerated.

She watched with surreal detachment as the slender tubing of the missile came in sight. The head of it held a thermonuclear warhead, large enough to take out a continent. It bore down on the reactor chamber, slid right between the two massive core housings and into the shaft in the bottom. The insulation in the pipe would allow the rocket to travel right to the very center of the planet before it detonated. On her computer screen, she could make out the forms of the Autobots traveling down the only vent shaft that bisected the tunnel in an effort to intercept the bomb. She watched the little blip that represented the rocket pass the vent just before the Autobots reached it. All of the blips disappeared from her radar as they reached the end of the shaft and disappeared into the planet's core. The scenario ran in her head, and she could see the temperatures of all the elements involved, the blast radius, the reaction of the substances surrounding, and the chain reaction and shockwave that would follow. It all led her to one conclusion.

The planet was about to die.

No sooner had the thought entered her mind than she felt the first tremors rock the floor beneath her. Clutching the crystal to her chest, she was thrown off her feet. She turned over in time to see a geyser of lava shoot into the reactor chamber, instantly liquefying the metal around the core. The noise of the following explosion deafened her immediately, and she was enveloped in a wall of white.

She knew nothing more until she saw a form of blue energy materialize in front of her. It towered over her, fluid lines racing to form metallic wings and limbs, and a face from long ago stared down at her, red eyes blazing with life. Climbing to her feet, she noticed that the familiar weight of the crystal was no longer around her neck. It was hovering in the center of the being before her, glowing a deep blue she hadn't seen since she was eighteen. She didn't know how she was still alive, or if she even was, but she found her voice anyway as the figure bent down to stare in her face.

"Starscream?"

"Jenny? What am I doing here?"

"I'm surprised you recognized me. I've gotten old in the fifty years you've been gone."

Starscream looked around him as energy continued to radiate from the space beyond his back. "What happened here?"

"A thermonuclear explosion just hit the earth's core. In a few minutes there will be nothing left of the planet but dust and energy. The reaction must have activated your crystal."

"Who detonated the explosion? Where are the Autobots?"

Jenny gave him a wry smile. "We did. The few remaining Autobots were at the epicenter of the attack. I doubt any of them survived. I guess you were right about humans being stupid. We managed to destroy ourselves without a second thought."

"...Maybe all but one are stupid."

Jenny sighed. She was probably dumber than the rest, being ultimately responsible for the death of the entire human race because she built the machine that allowed access to the planet's core. "I'm tired, Starscream. Will you take me home? I know I don't deserve it, but I don't want to go alone."

"I promised you would never be alone, didn't I?"

"You also said you didn't make promises to insects."

"I don't. But I do make promises to friends."

"Oh? And how many friends have you had, Decepticon?"

"One, little human, just one."

Jenny smiled then, stepping forward so Starscream could gather her up in his arms. The sound of ghost engines fired and they were lifted into the air. Through the white hot atmosphere they flew, until the cold of space greeted them. The fact that she could breathe outside the protective barrier of Earth's gases didn't disturb her; an intrinsic part of her knew she was dead already, despite the fact that she retained her consciousness. She watched the moon pass by, nearly as white as the Earth, its trajectory thrown back by the disturbances on the planet below. In a few minutes it would probably be blown apart by the shockwave. They would be the last beings in the universe to ever see it.

Mars and Jupiter were in different sections of the solar system, but after a few minutes she could see a yellow ball growing larger. The frozen rings around Saturn became more detailed as they neared. She watched in awe as it grew so large she couldn't look at all of it at once. She thought that might be where they were going, until Starscream headed toward one of the smaller moons that circled the planet. His engines raced, pushing them to go unimaginably fast. Holding her tighter against his chest, Starscream angled them so that they would land headfirst on the barren rock.

"Close your eyes, Jenny."

She did as he asked, feeling nothing as the blue streak of energy hit the moon, scattering its particles into space. A small crystal was embedded deeply into the rock, the faint purple glow concealed by layers of granite and iron. A week later the first waves of energy from the destroyed third planet broke the eternal silence of space, forever altering the courses of the other planets, but passing by without notice from anyone…

XXXXXX

The chains on the porch swing creaked as Jenny slowly rocked back and forth, turning the pages of the book she was reading. The house behind her was quiet, her father having gone out early tonight, leaving her in peace for once. She was so glad of it, because the summer night was perfect, with a clear sky full of twinkling stars, night birds, crickets and frogs vying with each other to be heard by their mates, and a breeze that kept the strands of her long hair stirred up and her face cool.

She had just turned another page in her book when a sound from the barn caught her attention. It sounded like metal hitting the dirt floor. Something important tugged at her mind, but she couldn't quite place what it was. Setting her book down, she rose to investigate. It was probably just a hungry coyote or stray dog looking for something to eat. No one with any sense would come sneaking around here. Her father would in all likelihood shoot them and there was nothing of value to be had anyway.

The noise from her tennis shoes on the gravel was muted by the clatter coming from inside, ensuring nothing would be warned of her approach. She thought she heard a muffled voice from inside, but when she stopped in front of the barn, only silence emanated from within.

She quietly lifted the latch to the doors, and with a mighty heave swung them open…

The End


End file.
